What They Needed
by unfashionably
Summary: Four years after the series ends, the Mew Aqua on the alien's planet wears off. They want the earth again, but getting it back is more complicated than they thought. And let's just pretend that A La Mode never happened. Chapter 8 up.
1. Application

**Unfash: Hello! I've been wanting to write a TMM fanfic for a while, so here we go! Flamers will be beaten with a stick, but constructive criticism is welcome. R&R!  
**

Part of me always knew. Even when our "fearless fighters" returned with enough Mew Aqua to revive our planet, I knew there was something wrong. I knew it couldn't last.

Now, four years later, I was proved right. The Mew Aqua is wearing off, the plants are dying, the temperature is dropping, the wind getting stronger. Slowly, but surely, our planet is becoming uninhabitable. Again.

We have to fight again, but this time we win it. This time we will get earth, because now Kish, Tart, and Pai are older. They're not the kids they used to be the first time. And plus, they are recruiting a new person to fight with them. They're holding auditions for the new fighter now, and I'm sitting in this metal folding chair, in a room with a bunch of other people, holding my application paper that I filled out, waiting.

And waiting sucks.

There were people sitting near me who look like they couldn't take my grandmother in a fight. Especially the manorexic guy standing near me with the incredibly visible ribcage. I could knock him over by gently poking him in his bony spine. His thin arms looked barely able to lift a spoon, let alone a weapon. Unless he had some sort of incredible weapon, I doubted he would be very helpful in a fight.

"67. " They called my number over the loudspeaker, finally. I had been waiting for what seemed like hours.

I walked into a room with a long table, at which Kish, Tart, Pai, and a woman I did not recognize were seated. Other people were standing in places in the room as well, probably just there to make sure I didn't do anything crazy.

"Name," Kish said, sounding bored.

"Vinegar Mie, at your service," I grinned.

"Okay, let's get this over with," Pai said, scanning his paper. "Let's see... Alright, we're going to give you a test enemy. Show us your fighting skills. And go." At that, I kid you not, a ninja popped out from behind the table and lunged at me.

I laughed, easily dodging his attack. I called out my weapon, which is like a long staff with sort of a glowing green ball at the top. When I swing it, green fire trails out of it, and when the fire touches you, it sends electric pulses through your body, which is extremely painful. I know this from experience mastering the use of this weapon. It's pretty fantastic when you know how to use it, though, and I am fortunate to have been born with it.

The ninja drew out a long sword and headed toward me. I didn't move, not out of fear, but out of not needing to. I slashed my staff at the ninja and the green fire brushed against is face. He screamed and fell to the ground, electricity flowing painfully through his veins. I whacked him over the head with my staff and he fell unconscious.

"Wow," Kish said, impressed. "That was pretty cool." One of the people standing in the room dragged the now unconscious ninja away. Oh, that's what they were there for: Ninja dragging.

"Your ninja just sucks," I mumbled.

Pai was reading over my application. "Impressive..." he mumbled.

"Hey," I said, pointing to the woman. "Who are you?"

"Oh," she said, smiling. "I'm Tart's mom! I just wanted to make sure they picked the right person. I never really trusted little Tart's decision making skills."

"Mom!"" Tart, who had been quiet until now, cried, exasperated.

"Well, honey, it's true," she said. "Remember the time you wanted to shave your darling little head? Remember how I had to talk you out of that?"

"Mom! Stop it! This is in no way similar to a hairstyle decision!" Tart said, putting his face in his hands in embarrassment.

"Moving on," Kish said in an annoyed tone. "Tell me your strategy plan, Vinegar."

"I've got it right here," Pai said, motioning to my application.

"No, I want to hear it from her," Kish said.

"Sure," I said. "You remember, of course, the approach you took on world takeover last time?"

"How could we forget?" Kish laughed softly, a distant look in his eye. I like saying things that made people remember their past, whether it made them uncomfortable or nostalgic. People need to remember. If you try to forget the past you can never fix your mistakes or make yourself better.

"I think we need to take a different approach. We don't need to kill the humans-"

"Isn't killing the humans the point?" Tart interrupted.

"Well, that didn't work so well for you last time, now did it? Killing the humans is unnecessary. We don't need to overpower them, we need to humble ourselves before them," I said.

"That sounds like the opposite of what we need to do," Kish smirked. I knew my plan sounded crazy at first. I knew I sounded stupid. I also knew it would work.

"We need to gain their trust. We come to them not as enemies, but as friends. Show them technology their tiny brains don't have the ability to invent themselves. Wow them. Be nothing but nice to them. And then, once they're wrapped around our fingers, we offer them luxury vacations on our beautiful planet."

"It won't be beautiful for long," Pai said forlornly. "We only have about two months left before everything dies."

"It won't take two months. In one, we'll have them sent off in ships to our planet, supposedly for vacation. But they never come back. We leave them all here, and we get the earth. No killing, no war. It's simple," I smiled.

"It can't be that simple. There are too many technicalities," Pai said.

"All of which can be worked out. It's a good plan, though, you have to agree," I said.

"You know, I think this could work," Tart said. Kish thought about it for a minute, then nodded.

"Well, I really like you, Vinegar. I like this plan. And even if it doesn't work, that weapon of yours will surely be useful. I think we should go with her, boys," Tart's mom said, smiling broadly at me.

Pai nodded slowly. "Yes, yes... I agree."

"So, it's decided," Kish said. "Welcome, Vinegar. You're now a part of our team."


	2. Which Color?

**Unfash: Hello again! New chapter, new chapter, new chapter! Woo! (Wow, I should lay off the coffee.)**

**Claimer: Vinegar, Artica, and zublors belong entirely to me. TMM, however, does not.**

I put the last shirt in my suitcase and closed it. They would be picking me up in about twenty minutes. My best friend, Artica, was looking at me with those big silver eyes of hers with a sullen expression on her face.

"What?" I asked.

"I have one request before you go to earth."

"Which is?" I looked at her curiously.

"Don't die," she said. She wasn't joking, I could tell.

"I wasn't planning on it, but I might now just to spite you," I laughed, giving her a quick hug. "Don't worry. I'll be with three other fighters who will all think I should be specially looked out for because I'm a girl."

"I know you said you probably wouldn't get into a big battle, but still. Sometimes you blow things out of proportion. You get stubborn and things go horribly wrong." I want to deny this, I really do, but Artica is usually right.

"I'll call you every night and tell you what I'm doing. This way if I'm doing something wrong, you can tell me. I'm going to be fine, I know I will. Humans are only about as smart as your pet zublor. Shifting them from one planet to the next should be easy," I said.

"What about the Mew Mews?" she asked.

"I'm sure they can be... " I paused. "I don't know. Pai will know. He seems smart."

"I'm sure he is. Attractive, too."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up about that," I laughed. "You've heard the rumors."

"About him and the green Mew? Please. It's been four years, he has to be over it."

"But who knows what will happen when he sees her again?"

"Hopefully something that ends in explosives." Artica loved fire. And loud noises. Shock waves, destruction, this all appealed to her.

"I might blow something up just to make you happy," I smiled. Then my mom burst in the room.

"Viny, they're here for you!" she shouted exitedly. Mom loved the idea of being able to tell people that her daughter helped take back the earth. I hugged her and Artica, grabbed my suitcase, and headed out the door. Kish was waiting for me in front of the massive ship that would be my home until earth could be.

"Hey," he said. He didn't offer to help my with my suitcase, which I liked. I hated when people assumed I wasn't strong enough to carry big things.

I smiled at him, turning around to wave goodbye to my mom and Artica. They waved back, and I noticed Artica had tears in her eyes. That made me want to stay, but I had gotten too far to back out. Kish and I went into the ship.

My suitcase was taken by Pai, who said nothing, and secured in a shelf. He pointed me to a seat, a big, awesome looking seat. I sat in it and strapped myself in.

"Transmission for Captain Picard," I mumbled. I couldn't help it. I hadn't spent much time in big ships such as this, but I had watched a lot of Star Trek. The humans who made the show got a lot of the technology wrong, of course, but it was still a pretty good show, and this chair would fit in its set nicely.

Our combined teleportation powers teleported the ship to an area just outside earth's atmosphere. It is unwise not to be strapped in while teleporting with something big, because you never know what might happen. One of us could lose concentration and throw the ship of balance mid-teleport, causing us massive turbulence. The teleportation method is a quick, easy, but dangerous one. When you're teleporting just you, it's safe, but add other people or, say, a ship into the equation, and that's a different thing entirely.

Once we got the ship to a complete stop, I got up from my seat.

"Come on, Vinegar, I'll show you your room," Kish motioned for me to follow him. I grabbed my suitcase and we walked down a narrow hallway, our footsteps echoing against the metal walls. We stopped in front of a door, Kish pushed the button next to it and the door whooshed open.

For a moment I thought I had gone colorblind. The entire room was gray. Not silver, just a bleak, depressing gray. The bed was tiny, I knew that in the nights to come there would be many times where I roll over and hit the floor.

"Seriously?" I looked at Kish with one eyebrow raised.

"What?" he asked, looking around the room.

"So much gray..." I shook my head. "Who put this room together?"

"It came this way," he shrugged.

"It's awful," I said. I put my suitcase on my bed, opened it, and rummaged through it until I found some bright red nail polish. I didn't wear nail polish, I'm pretty sure no one did. I found it in a store on our planet that sold human goods. I always carried the little bottle with me, though. I had a feeling I would need it. I opened the nail polish and held the little brush up to the wall.

"What are you doing?" Kish asked, watching me in confusion. I didn't answer, just started painting on my wall. Abstract shapes and big eyed creatures of my design soon occupied it, changing the room completely. It smelled strongly of chemicals, but I didn't care. Kish, however, did.

"Ew," he said, scrunching up his nose in disgust. "I'm leaving now," he raised up a foot from the floor and glided away.

The good thing about my room was that there was a huge window which bubbles out so I can look straight down at the earth. Clouds swirled above it, and I couldn't wait for the day I could look at the clouds from below. There were no clouds anymore on our planet, unless you counted dust clouds.

I went back to my suitcase and pulled out a small mirror and a boombox that I had also bought from the human goods store (which is actually called Human Goods. When I took Artica there for the first time, she looked at the sign, giggled, and said "Human Goods. Dirty.")

I think the only good thing about humans is their ability to entertain. I had bought various CDs at Human Goods, as well as my Star Trek DVD. I listened to plenty of music from my own race, but they paled in comparison to Nana Kitade.

I put in a CD of hers into a slot in the boombox and pressed play. I smiled, her music always made me happy, no matter where I was. I walked back over to my suitcase, picking up the mirror and a thumb tack. I stuck the thumb tack into the wall and hung the mirror on it.

I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed how much I had changed in the past four years. I used to be a tiny, pale, sickly thing from the lack of sunlight and proper nutrition. I had more color to my cheeks now, and my skin had gone from white to off-white. Our race doesn't get very tan.

My hair had also been affected from the brilliant sunlight our planet got once the Mew Aqua cleared the looming dust clouds overhead. It was so much lighter now, lighter even than the blonde it used to be. It almost matched my skin. It still looked a little thin and damaged; all those years of darkness and malnutrition had messed it up so bad. That was changing now. I smiled and ran my fingers through it, it was getting fuller and softer, I could tell.

A couple of years ago I had bluntly cut my hair into a short bob, but now it hung a inch or two above my shoulders. I was trying to grow it out again. I liked it long.

One thing, however, hadn't changed at all. My eyes, which are bright teal. My mom compared them to the color of a bird on earth, called a peacock. I've never seen one but I take her word for it.

Artica gets freaked out when I stare at her, she says that my eyes are too big and seem to be reading her mind. I'd always laugh at her and say eerily: "I know what you did last summer..."

I smiled at myself in the mirror, happy with what I had become. I sat down on the floor and focused on the music pounding out of the speakers of the boombox.

A couple songs later, someone knocked on my door. I stood up, walked over and pressed the button. The door whooshed open again, and there stood Tart.

"You've been here for half an hour and you've already succeeded in getting on Pai's nerves. Good job!" he laughed. "He wants you to turn it down, though." I considered turning it down and not making Pai hate me. Then I considered the other option.

"I'm not going to," I grinned rebelliously. Tart grinned back at me.

"You sure that's wise?" he asked.

"I'm sure the outcome will be way more entertaining," I chuckled. "And I like to be entertained."

"I like you, Vinegar. You remind me of Kish," he said.

"Are you and Kish good friends?" I asked.

"He gets on my nerves sometimes... " he paused, thinking for a moment. "A lot, actually. But we're like brothers."

"It must be nice," I said. "To have someone you're close to be by your side during battle. It must make you feel a little safer."

"I actually feel safer with Pai when it comes to battle," he laughed. "You never know what Kish will do out there," he looked down he hall uneasily, as if to make sure we weren't being listened in on. "Can I tell you a story?" he asked.

"Sure," I said. He walked into my room, shutting the door behind him. He didn't seem to notice my little customization of the wall. I turned off my music, sat on the floor, and motioned for him to sit across from me.

"So," he said, sitting down cross legged. He drifted upward, floating above the ground. I didn't like to float, I never did. I liked the solid support of the floor. "Did you hear the rumors about Kish and Mew Ichigo?"

"They had a thing, right?"

"It was mostly one-sided. He loved her from the instant he saw her, but she hated him. The whole time we battled she hated him. He never gave up, though," Tart said.

"Did it pay off?"

"Well, she kinda had a boyfriend at the time. At the final battle... I know something happened between Kish and Ichigo, but I don't know what. I do know, however, that she stayed with her boyfriend, Aoyma Masaya-san. Even after Kish gave his life for her, she stayed with Aoyma-san. Ungrateful hag," Tart shook his head in disgust.

"Wow, pent-up anger, much?" I smirked at him. He ignored me.

"Two years after the battle Kish went to see her again. I told him not to, but Kish does whatever he wants. Even at the risk of others. He said that Aoyma-san had gone to England and that the long-distance relationship ended up not working. He said that he and Ichigo had worked things out, that they even kissed, but... " Tart stopped sighed deeply.

"Come on Tart, don't leave me hanging here. Finish that sentence."

"Ichigo had some sort of freak-out and refused to see him again. He would never tell me what really happened. That was the first time... The first time I watched Kish give up on something." Tart looked sad, his ears drooping low as he softly drifted back down to the floor.

"Wow, that sucks," I said. I didn't actually care if something bad had happened to Kish. I didn't know him well enough to care. "So, Kish wanted the pink Mew, Pai wanted the green, which color did you want?"

"What?" He turned nine different shades of red. I laughed at him.

"There had to be someone. Come on, spill."

"I don't even know you well! Why should I tell you?" he snapped at me in annoyance. I was clearly embarrassing him. It was so fun.

"Because we're a team!" I giggled. "If you can trust anyone, it's your team. Now, tell me: Which color?"

He glared at me, his face red and his eyebrows furrowed. I kept my gaze steadied on him, willing him with my eyes to tell me.

"Yellow," he mumbled. "I... she's... I don't really... " he struggled for words.

"You were, what, eleven then?" I tried to hold back my smile. I didn't want him to think I was making fun of him, but I did find this incredibly funny.

"Yeah. Eleven. It wasn't really anything, although she did kiss me."

"Kissing is something, you silly neener head. What are you going to do when you see her again?"

"Nothing. We're only friends, if that. I do plan on making her cry, though."

"Why would you do something so moronic?"

"Because in all that time... she was always so bubbly, I could never make her cry. She was never afraid of me. She should be."

"If you make her cry, I'm going to pound in your face in with my staff," I said bluntly.

Tart's eyes widened. "Wouldn't that kill me?"

"Probably. But if you try to make the girl who loves you cry, I'll do it in a heartbeat, and I'll feel nothing but accomplishment," I gave him a stern look. "You hear me?"

"O-okay," he nodded. "I won't. But aren't we just going to kill them anyways?"

"Not unless it's absolutely necessary," I said calmly.

"Um, okay. Good talk," he eyed me nervously. I had freaked him out, I knew. But that was fine, I enjoyed it.

"I'll see you later," he said, and teleported out of my room.

**Unfash: I loved writing this chapter. Please review and tune in next time for another episode of WHEEL OF FORTUNE- Wait, no, that's not it**.


	3. Wonderful Humans

**Unfash: Thank you guys so much for the reviews! Sorry it took me so long to update.**

Taking over the world is pretty fun.

Here's what we do: We take on one country at a time. We appear somewhere were we will get the most publicity; whether it be a news program or a massive sale on Ugg boots. We introduce ourselves. We tell them who we are. Most of them laugh as if we're playing an elaborate prank. Then we show them flying. Teleporting. Their faces are priceless.

The vacations are offered and readily accepted by most. Some are more difficult to convince than others. Those who don't want to are taken as they sleep, it doesn't matter if this upsets them. We don't want to use force, but we will if we have to. This planet is ours, we do what is necessary.

We cure the people in hospitals. Our medicines are much more advanced than the pathetic human ones. We want to keep the trust of humans, and curing them only makes them love us more. It also makes the job of teleporting them a whole lot easier. It's very hard to teleport someone so sick without killing them in the process.

I almost feel bad for giving the dying such hope of a new life, but only almost. They're still _humans, _after all. Filthy, wasteful, ignorant humans.

For every family that moves off earth, a family of our kind moves in. The humans are fascinated by us. They want to befriend us, to interview us, and some want to dissect us. We don't worry about that, humans pose no threat. Mews are the only things that trouble us.

The cycle goes on until the country is empty, and then we go on to the next.

Many, many of our kind have helped with the human transporting. Things are going along seamlessly. We seem to be endlessly working, sometimes taking on two or three small countries a day.

We've worked for two months now. Our time is up. Our planet is almost as bad as it was before the Mew Aqua, and we need to get the rest of the humans there quickly. We have one country left: Japan.

Our ship was hovering high above Tokyo, hidden by thick clouds. Tomorrow we would finish our job, Earth would soon be ours...

Kish walked into my room, not bothering to knock. He had a look of distress on his face, his golden eyes almost conveying fear. Kish never seemed to fear, he always seemed so confident. Obnoxiously so.

This subtle panic in his eyes worried me. It wasn't supposed to be there.

"I've made a mistake," Kish said, his voice wavering.

"Describe," I demanded. Kish always made mistakes, his imperfection showed through every day, but he never seemed to acknowledge it.

"I... I went down to earth," he sat down uneasily on my bed, the guilt in his voice making me cringe. This had to be bad. "I went to see..."

"What is it with you guys and not finishing your sentences? Finish it, finish it!" Kish's panicked expression was unnerving me. His panic induced my panic. What was going on? Why was he having such trouble telling me?

"Ichigo," he whispered. "I went to see Ichigo."

"You're an idiot," I stated. He ignored my insult and continued speaking.

"I wanted to tell her what was going on. I wanted to save her."

"Idiot, idiot, idiot."

"If she agreed not to fight us...if she agreed..." The tear that slid down his face instilled no pity in my heart. That panic he gave me turned to anger; it bubbled up in my throat and made my words harsh.

"If she agreed to what, Kish? To be yours? To live life among us? Don't be so naive, so selfish, so _childlike,_" I hissed. "Even if you got her to agree, what makes you think the rest of us would accept her?"

"She refused to come with me," he said, continuing to ignore me. "She's warning the other Mews... They're warning Japan... I've messed everything up. We don't have enough time..."

"Stop your whining. We can get the rest of our kind onto earth before time's up. But humans are brutal. If they think we're the enemy, they'll kill our families. We're the only ones able to fight, Kish! The rest of them are helpless. You're killing them."

"You think I don't know that?" he shouted. "I know, okay? I get it! But there has to be a way to fix this."

"There is. Silence your heart and silence the enemy."

"What do you mean?"

"We have to get rid of the Mews before they can alert Japan. If you're too childish to do it, then I'll do it for you. If you try to stop me, I'll silence you as well."

He looked at me in disbelief. "And here I was beginning to think we were friends."

"I don't want a human lover as a friend." The word 'human' soured on my tongue. The more time I spent with those filthy animals, the more I hated the very sound of the word.

"They're not all bad, you know. Just the majority."

"Forgive me if I don't want to take the time to find someone special. I have to save the ones who matter, and frankly, humans don't."

"You're so close-minded. Just like the rest of them... You'll never understand how wonderful some humans are. You're missing out on something great because you believe what everyone else has told you," he said, the look in his eye had changed from sadness to... pity.

Anger swelled in my throat again. He pitied me. Pitied _me _for not being able to understand the "wonderful" world of humans. There was nothing to understand; humans were scum. Kish was blind to that.

"Get out," I stood there, holding in my anger. My fingers tingled with the desire to drive my nails into his face. I wanted all that pity he had for me to seep out of the wounds I could make.

But that would make me no better than the _humans. _Such a violent reaction would be something _they_ would do.

We are peaceful creatures. We don't use violence with one another. The only time we would even consider using violence if it would give our earth back to us. Only on humans. Not on our families.

"Fine," he shrugged. "But I won't allow you to kill my Ichigo. We'll have to find another way."

He teleported out of my room before I could respond. Which was a good thing, I supposed, because the next words to come out of my mouth wouldn't have been very sweet.

I plopped down face first onto my bead, playing his words again in my mind.

Humans? Wonderful? I don't think so. Kish is turning into a traitor.

Then again... Nana Kitade. I adore her. Her music is important to me. I've never felt any negative thoughts toward her... I've never thought of her as a earth wasting, vapid human. Am I thinking like Kish? Am I a traitor to my people?

No. I'm not at all like Kish. I'd prove that tomorrow.

**Unfash: This chapter killed my brain! Killed it dead, I say! I kept having to rewrite it...again and again and again. There are so many discarded versions of this chapter. **

**However, now that this evil chapter is behind me, life is filled with glitter and unicorns! I wear fairy wings and listen to Dancing Queen over and over!**

**But alas, now I must write chapter 4. **

**And in this chapter 4: STUFF. WILL. HAPPEN! These three chapters have been talking, talking, and more talking. There will be Mews! I promise you!**

**Please review! Reviews make me skip around the room and sing songs of merriment! **


	4. Notice Me

**Unfash: I'm alive! Really! Cookies for all! Munch and enjoy!**

I suppose there's a possibility I could die today.

Then again, isn't my death always a possibility? There are an endless number of ways I could die. I think that on this day the odds of my death are higher than other days, though.

That thought lingers in my mind; I very well _could _die. Should I be writing my will? No, not necessary. I won't let myself die today. Not even if one of the Mews weapons is plunged deep into my heart, stopping its beats, I will not let myself die. Not that way. I'll have to prevent that somehow.

Of course, the odds of the Mews killing me are pretty slim. They aren't smart enough to figure out how to beat me. The fact that they agreed to this battle shows that they can't be very intelligent. We've arranged for them to meet us at noon, and we'll fight to the death. Pai says that it's the simplest way to do this, but I think that killing them as they sleep is a better idea.

I mean, seriously. A fight-to-the-death battle? Who agrees to that? They must be pretty confident in their abilities, despite the fact that I know that they have only had access to their powers for the past two months. They regained them as soon as we arrived on earth. It's been four years since they last fought, so it's impossible that they're as good at fighting as they used to be.

"Vin?" Tart called for me from outside my room. "It's almost time."

"I'll be out in a second," I called back.

I walked over to my mirror and observed myself. I wore a simple black turtleneck, it's soft fabric ending just below my chest and exposing my pale stomach. Black shorts, black combat boots that cling to my legs up to my knees; these are the sorts of things that frequent my wardrobe.

Despite the fact that I ware so much black, I'm not a "goth", as humans call it. I simply like the contrast the dark color makes against my light hair and skin. I felt like it made me look more visible, less like a ghost looming in the room.

I figured that I was as ready as I ever could be, so it was time for us to go.

We teleported into a large, grassy park in Tokyo, the place of our arranged meeting. The Mews hadn't arrived yet, so Tart gently floated downward and let his feet touch the ground.

"I like it here," he said. "When we're killing the Mews, let's try not to hurt the grass too much, okay?"

Pai nodded.

We were the only ones in the park, as it was winter and there were little flakes of snow falling onto my stomach. I shivered in the cold. It had always been warm on our planet, so the styles of clothing weren't designed with the idea of protecting us from frozen water bombarding us from the sky.

I took in the scenery around me. Icicles hung down from the naked branches of the trees, looking like glass. The sun reflected against those spikes of winter, hurting your eyes if you looked directly at them. I sighed. Most of those beautiful icicles would probably be knocked down once we got around to battling.

"Are they still coming?" Kish asked, perched on large branch in a tree.

"They should be," Pai answered.

"If they stand us up, can we go with my night killing idea?" I asked.

"It seems we'll have to," Pai said. I smiled. My plan was better, anyway.

And then, crushing all my hopes of night killing, the Mews arrived. Not just the Mews, but the Mews and a guy.

He seemed to be one of our kind, with long, pointed ears at the sides of his head. He had long, blonde hair held back in a loose ponytail. His eyes were the most glorious blue I had ever seen, it was a shame I'd have to kill him.

But if he was one of our kind, why was he with _them? _

"Blue Knight…" Kish mumbled, glaring at him. The Blue Knight glared back, and I could sense the rivalry between them. For Ichigo? Neither of them had Ichigo now, so what was the problem? Maybe it was a guy thing?

_The Blue Knight._ I had learned about him. The late Deep Blue had given him that ability to transform into one of us, to deceive the Mews. Or something like that, I wasn't really clear on the details. That turned out to be a bad move on Deep Blue's part, considering he's dead now.

I wasn't aware that the Blue Knight would regain his powers like the Mews have, but this doesn't matter. Just one more human to kill, it's not that big of a deal.

"Let's get this over with," Pai said, pulling out his fan.

I grinned my evilest grin, called out my staff, and begun the fight.

I decided to kill Blue Knight first. I'm not sure why, I guess I just felt like it. I thrust my staff at his legs, as they were the most exposed part of his body. Seriously, no guy should wear shorts like that.

He jumped over my staff as if it were a jump rope. He made no move against me, just waited for me to do something. The Mews and my allies were fighting all around us, but in that moment we did nothing, just stared at each other. I noticed his eyes again. So blue… I had to wonder if they were colored contacts.

His stare made me uncomfortable very quickly, so this time I tried to hit him in the face with my staff. I swung it at him, but before it could hit him he took hold of it, pulling it out of my hands and throwing it onto the ground.

 For a second I had no idea what had just happened. I looked at the ground, grass sizzling under the green flame of my staff. Then I came back to my senses. Sadly, I came back to my senses a second too late. He grabbed hold of my arm, and I tried to pull away but I couldn't. He was surprisingly strong. He didn't really look strong, but he was. Stronger than me.

…_Crap_.

I clawed at his hand that was gripping my arm, but he ignored it. Maybe he didn't even feel it. Stupid me, I shouldn't have trimmed my nails the day before. I should have let them grow into little knives.

In his free hand I saw a small needle, filled with a greenish substance.

Crap, crap. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. Not good.

I kicked him, but he didn't move. What was he, nailed to the ground? I kicked again, harder this time. Then again, and again, but he didn't move.

He stuck the needle into my arm, and I screamed. This was very, very bad. Why wasn't someone helping me? I looked around desperately, but the boys were too into the fight. They didn't notice what was happening to me at all.

The Blue Knight pushed the top of the needle slowly down, emptying all that green substance into my blood.

"What are you doing?" I screeched at him.

"Surviving," he said calmly. I screamed again, and let the scream last. I would scream until someone helped me.

But I felt myself getting weaker.

My scream faded into a whisper, and my legs buckled under me. The Blue Knight scooped me up into his arms, and I tried to push him away, but failed. I fought unconsciousness, but I could tell that I was slipping away.

My head pounded, and my eyelids felt heavy, heavier than anything I could think of. Entire planets? No, my eyelids were heavier. I just wanted to sleep…  

The last thing I heard was Pai noticing.

"Hey!" he yelled at the Blue Knight. "What do you think you're doing with her?"

Then nothing.

**Unfash: Cliffy! Woo!   **

****

Sorry it took me so hideously long to update! I had writers block… times one million. It was weird, I knew what I wanted to happen, but my fingers wouldn't write for me.

Maybe you guys should leave my fingers encouraging reviews. I'm sure that would make a chapter 5 come along much faster. XD

Oh, yes, just so you know, I am not a Masaya fan. In fact, I'm a Masaya hater. I love Kish. I'm a Kish lover! I might come off as a bit of a Masaya lover in this fic, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.  

Please review! I love you all more than people I hate! ...Yeah!


	5. The Smell of Cake

**Unfash: I am so freakishly happy right now, and for no apparent reason. I have to wonder if someone drugged my toast (I just ate toast).**

**So, yeah. Chapter five!**

I awoke to the smell of cake, sweet and warm. Pleasant, but very concerning. The ship _never _smelled like cake. None of us baked.

Well, actually, Pai once made baked ziti. But, baked ziti smells nothing like cake (...Duh).

But, wasn't I on the ship? I had to be. Where else would I be? I was laying down in a bed, my head resting on a pillow. I don't generally fall asleep in random beds, so this one had to be my own. It just had to be.

Memories came back to me in a flash: The Blue Knight grabbing hold of me, sticking me with a needle, and it drugging me into sleep.

Hadn't Pai tried to stop the Blue Knight? I had to be safe. Pai was stronger than the Blue Knight. I was safe in my room. Pai had definitely saved me.

Then again, I smelled _cake._

I tried to open my eyes and look around, but this turned out to be hard. As soon as I tried to lift my eyelids, a vicious light attacked my very fragile eyeballs.

Head throbbing, I lifted a hand and rubbed my temples. That didn't work. My head just _hurt, _like a human hangover and an inflating brain-balloon wrapped in one nifty package,and no amount of head massage would help it.

I sat up. My head protested this for a moment with a lovely burst of excruciating pain, and then returned to it's original level of pain.

The bed had creaked noisily when I sat up. My bed didn't creak whatsoever. All signs pointed to: Not my bed. Someone else's bed, in a place that smelled like cake.

_I had been kidnapped,_ I gulped. I let that fact sink in.

I told myself not to panic. I could teleport myself out of this place. I focused my mind on creating a portal to my room, the place I should be.

Nothing happened.

I tried again, focusing harder. Maybe this incredible headache was making my ability to teleport more difficult.

Again, nothing.

I tried again. And again, and again. Nothing, nothing, nothing. After my sixth try, my head screamed in pain. I had to stop focusing; it was making my headache worse.

Without any hope of teleportation, I had to open my eyes.

At first, all I saw was light. Blinding, white light. My head seemed to flip inside out, the pain was overpowering. Then it began to lessen. I took deep breaths of the cold air until the light cleared and the pain was tolerable.

After a few minutes, I could look at my surroundings without feeling like I was going to die. I was in a cage. In the cage with me were a bed (that I was currently occupying), and a toilet.

_A toilet._

A bed and a toilet _in a cage._

Me, a bed, and a toilet. In. A. Cage.

I found this all to be very alarming. My breathing quickened a little as I tried to not have a panic attack. Panic attacks are useless, and I try to avoid them at all times.

Instead of panicking, I decided to take a look at the rest of my surroundings.

Outside of my fairly large cage, there was an even larger room.

There was a huge computer and monitor on one wall, it's various lights flashing and components whirring. On the wall opposite me there was a staircase leading to a door with about ten heavy-duty locks on it.

I could also see a Mew Mew. A very, very pink Mew Mew.

She was turned away from me, sitting in a chair, clearly lost in her thoughts, or possibly asleep. And completely unaware that I had awakened. However, she was only a few feet away, so I did what I felt like doing.

"Ew!" she shrieked, a sound that felt like a dagger to my brain. She quickly spun around to face me. "Did you just _spit _at me?"

I nodded, my head stinging at her high pitched voice.

"Aghh!" she furiously wiped my nicely-aimed spit off her arm and stomped up the stairs.

"Ryou!" I could hear her scream, even though she was all the way upstairs. "She's awake, and she spit at me!"

Well, of course I did, Ichigo. Because you guys kidnapped me.

Moments later, Ryou Shirogane came downstairs, followed by a still-angry Ichigo.

''I suppose you're wondering why we've kidnapped you," he said.

"No, I was just wondering how to skin a walrus," I said sarcastically. Of course I was wondering why they had kidnapped me. Maybe they just did it for fun.

"You're our hostage," he said simply. "If your friends take even one human, you die. Life for a life."

"They'll find me. I know they will, because you chose a sucky place to keep a hostage. I already know where I am, and they'll figure it out soon enough," I said.

Then again, they're kind of stupid. But isn't the basement of Cafe Mew Mew an extremely obvious place to look?

"Even if they do, they won't be able to get you back unless we let you go. This room is made of anti-teleportation materials. You can't teleport in... or out," he said, a sly grin on his face.

"Anti-teleportation materials? Are you kidding me?" I asked. That sort of thing _had _to be impossible.

"Our technology is more advanced than you would think," he said. "So, basically, you're buying us time. Until we figure out a way to save our earth, the Mews will take turns watching you," he motioned toward Ichigo, who was now wiping down her arm with a moist towelette.

Suddenly, I was fuming. This whole kidnapping thing was so unnecessary. If they couldn't get me back, they would let me die. Getting back the earth was more important than my life. If I had to, I would die.

"What, exactly, is your plan? You better come up with something brilliant soon, because I will not be held here for long. They will let me die in order to get this planet," I said.

"We'll see," he said nonchalantly.

My death is definitely becoming a big possibility.

Then I remembered: Artica hold told me specifically not to die.

I couldn't just let them kill me... Not even for the earth. Because, when I think about it, Artica is more important than the earth to me. I would keep my word. I would live.

How would they kill me, anyway? I'm pretty sure I still have control of my staff, so I can fight back if they try.

Then again, the Blue Knight had taken my staff from me so easily. That's the reason I was in this situation.

Maybe I could reason with them. Not likely, but worth a shot. I would have to try everything.

Ryou headed back up the stairs, leaving me alone with Ichigo. We sat in silence for what felt like forever, her "guarding" me, me being "guarded", until my boredom got the best of me.

"So... what now?" I asked.

"Now I make sure you don't try to do anything."

"...Like what?" Maybe she could give me some ideas.

"I don't know, something extraterrestrial," she shrugged. "Or, if for some reason, you get out of that cage, I'll be here to put you back."

"I could so take you in a fight," I said.

"What makes you think that?"

"I've just got a feeling that you're not as good as you used to be four years ago. Age has gotten to you. As Tart would say, you're an old hag."

Her face turned red, and she looked just about ready to kill me now.

"You can't kill me, Ichigo," I taunted her. "Because then, you wouldn't have a hostage."

She thought about that for a minute, then said, "I hate you."

"Oooh, that's a dagger to my heart," I giggled. I think the smell of cake coupled with the small amounts of mysterious green substance left in my blood messed with my head a little. I started giggling uncontrollably.

Ichigo stared at me like a small turtle had come directly out of my navel.

"You're crazy," she said.

I giggled for a few more minutes, then let silence take over.

And so began my life as a teenage hostage.

**Unfash: Who else is stuck with the image of a small turtle coming out of Vin's navel? I think at the time when I wrote that bit, all the Abba I had been listening to finally got to me.**

**Thanks so much for the reviews! I give delicious TOAST WITH JAM to all the lovely reviewers. So, if you want some toast (and, of course, jam), just send me a review! Yeay reviews!**


	6. Snap

**Unfash: Hello, lovely readers! **

**I started writing this chapter from Vin's POV, as usual, but then I realized that I really wanted to write this particular chapter from the POV of Masaya. I'm the authoress and I'm mad with power!**

**Oh, yes, toast and jam for everyone!**

It only took Vinegar a week to drive every single one of the Mews crazy, except for Pudding.

I had been at Cafe Mew Mew every single day, just in case. Just in case she got out of her cage and the Mews couldn't get her back in. I would be there to help. But until that happened, I just sat around eating cake.

The Mews were watching her in shifts, one person in the day and another at night. The first day, Ichigo, my ex-girlfriend, was on guard. We weren't really on speaking terms anymore. After the breakup, there were no reasons for us to speak to each other. We had no aliens to fight, so what was the point?

Everyone was so surprised when our relationship ended, three and a half years ago. I gave them the simplest explanation: That the long distance relationship didn't end up working. I never went into details about what had exactly happened.

I had asked her to go to England with me, but she couldn't. Her parents weren't about to let their 14 year old daughter go off to England with her boyfriend. I completely understood. I went to England alone.

In England, the long distance relationship worked pretty well. For about a week. She called and emailed me constantly, obviously insecure about me being so far away. I thought it was cute. I thought she was cute. We were cute. I loved us.

Then that love started to fade. I grew tired of the calls and the emails. She flooded my inbox and my missed calls list. I had work to do there, hadn't she know that? I couldn't spend so much time attached to my cellphone.

I tried to keep the relationship going for as long as I could. I asked if she could pull back a little on the calls, and she obliged. She still called a lot, but it was tolerable.

Then, once, in the middle of tour of the Endangered Animal Rescue Center of England (EARCE), my phone rang. It was her. Something in me snapped.

"Hi, Masaya!" she gigged over the phone. Her voice didn't sound cute then. I had heard it too many times that day for it to still sound cute.

"Stop calling me! I don't care if you miss me, I don't care if you "just want to hear my voice", I want you to stop!" I had screamed, then hung up. Everyone within earshot (a lot of people, considering how loud I had been) stared at me cautiously, as if I was going to scream at them as well.

That was when I started to suspect that there was something wrong with me. The old me wouldn't have screamed like that. The anger I felt, that wasn't from me. The last time I had felt that angry I hadn't really been me. I had been Deep Blue.

After that realization, I had begun to notice other differences in my behavior. I was more easily frustrated with people. On occasion I could feel Deep Blue's burning hatred of humans leftover in my blood. Most of the time I could keep these feelings under control, but sometimes, like with Ichigo, some of that anger leaked out.

I came to the conclusion that I hadn't erased Deep Blue from my body. Almost, but not entirely. Some small part of my brain still thought like him.

It was for this reason that I had to break up with Ichigo. That small part of my brain was repulsed by her.

That small part of my brain was growing in strength. It got to the point that I had to keep a rubber band on my wrist, snapping myself with it whenever I got angry. Self-discipline. That helped. It also gave me a scar on my wrist that looks like I cut myself.

Now, most of these thoughts are subdued. I still keep a rubber band on my wrist, because sometimes I still use it.

Day had turned to night, and Ichigo's shift was over. She came upstairs and entered the closed cafe. It had been decided that it wasn't a good idea to keep the cafe open while we had a hostage in the basement. Ichigo plopped down on a chair, and sighed in frustration, her cat ears twitching. While watching Vinegar, you had to be transformed.

"She's crazy. It's like it's her goal in life to make you want to kill her... and yourself," Ichigo said, then poured herself a cup of coffee and sucked it down.

"What did she do?" Zakuro asked, sipping her own cup of coffee.

"What _didn't _she do? She sang, she screamed, she bounced around in her cage, and made as much noise as possible! Sometimes she yells in English, just because she knows I can't understand!" Ichigo whined. I snapped the rubber band on my wrist.

"Well, that sucks," Zakuro said, casually. I was surprised at how casually they could talk about our hostage, as if Vinegar was just something we'd always had laying around in the basement.

As it turns out, Ichigo wasn't just a whiner. Vinegar drove everyone crazy. By the end of the week, no one would watch her. Except for Pudding. She found Vinegar to be incredibly amusing.

Suddenly, it was up to Pudding and I to watch Vinegar full time. Ryou and Keiichiro couldn't watch her, they were powerless. Well, Ryou could turn into a cat, but what good did that do?

Pudding happily skipped into the cafe at the end of her day shift.

"Ask Vinegar to tell you the funny joke she told me!" Pudding said. I had no plans to do so.

That would be my first time watching Vinegar. I had been sleeping all day in preparation. I felt nervous, even though I shouldn't have. _She's in a cage, _I reminded myself. _She can't even touch you._

I walked down the stairs, and saw Vinegar for the first time since I'd kidnapped her. She was sitting cross legged on the floor of her cage, instead of on the bed. Her ears perked up when she saw me sit on the chair across from her cage.

"Hey, Blue Knight. How's it hangin'?" she greeted me, smiling. I couldn't tell if that smile was evil or not. It was very likely that it was evil, but she seemed genuinely excited to see me. Why?

I decided to not answer her question, as I wasn't sure if I was even supposed to.

"I've been wondering, do your legs get cold in those shorts?" she asked.

I didn't respond, even though the answer was yes, my legs did get cold. Especially in that basement. Why was it so cold in there?

"You're ignoring me? Well, fine, if you want it that way," she stopped talking.

We sat in silence for a while, then her head went slack. The sudden movement startled me. Her hair fell in front of her face, leaving a space big enough for me to see one of her bright teal eyes staring at me.

_She's trying to creep me out, _I rationalized. And she was doing a good job. Her hands limply clung to the cage bars, her huge eyes still fixed on mine. She almost looked dead, she was so still. I don't think she even blinked.

My heartbeats became more frequent. Her undead stare started to get to me. The silence, her stare, it all became too much. I wanted her to stop looking at me, or to talk, anything.

"V-Vinegar?" I stammered.

"Yes?" she lifted her head up and her eyes looked alive again.

"...Nothing."

"Ha, the silence got to you," she laughed at me. It wasn't just the silence. The silence I could have taken. It was her stare.

"Maybe a little," I admitted. I didn't want her to stop talking.

"Okay then, let's stop this boring silence and discuss something."

Discuss something? Where was the screaming and singing and endless noise I had heard so much about?

"Um, uh, okay... What do you want to discuss?"

She paused to think. "We could always discuss your shorts, because I have so much to say about them."

"No, we can't discuss my shorts," I said. Vinegar, I found out, was very weird.

"How about the electromagnetic spectrum?"

"I don't even know what that is."

"Stupid human," she mumbled. I snapped the rubber band. "We can just discuss ourselves then. How old are you?"

"19, you?" Strangely, I really did want to know more about her.

"18. What's your favorite color?"

"Blue."

"Fitting."

"I think so."

And from there, we just...talked. For hours, and about everything. I was surprised at how easily the conversation flowed. It was like she wasn't an alien hostage and I wasn't her kidnapper. It was like we were just friends, staying up all night talking.

At around five in the morning, she pulled the hair that hung around her face into a ponytail. I realized the fact that those huge, teal eyes were very beautiful. She was beautiful, there was no denying that. She had full, almost pouty, pink lips. I found myself staring at them, imagining what they would feel like on mine.

Thankfully, Vinegar was too absorbed in our conversation to notice where my eyes were directed.

I snapped the rubber band again, but this time for a different reason. It was not a good idea to think of Vinegar this way. She was a hostage, nothing more.

**Unfash: New and improved Masaya! Lemon fresh scent! Anger issues!**

**I hope you liked this chapter, and even if you didn't, please send me a review! Reviewers get granola! **


	7. Romeo and Juliet

**Unfash: I'm outside, under an umbrella on the patio of Starbucks. I'm drinking peppermint hot chocolate and eating a scone, and trying not to spill any on my MacBook. Generic profile of a writer FTW!**

**I'm also getting yelled at by passersby in cars, possibly by people I know. Distractions FTL!**

**You know what? Starbucks itself is a distraction. How am I getting any work done here?!**

**Ahh! The wind is trying to blow away my scone!**

**It's okay, I saved it. Chapter 7 time!**

For my first week as a hostage, the thing that irritated me the most was not the fact that I was a hostage, or that I was in a tiny cage, or that I had to use the bathroom in front of people.

It wasn't even the fact that the Mews were the ones that had me. The Mews. How embarrassing. Everyone must have thought I was an idiot for being captured by them.

I was irritated by all of that, but not as much as I was irritated by the cold.

It was always cold. I think I was especially vulnerable to the cold because so much of my skin was showing. And I've said before, I wasn't used to cold weather. I was used to consistent sun-filled days.

Before our planet had Mew Aqua, I was used to the cold. It was constantly cold underground. But even then we had electric heaters. In that cage I had one flimsy blanket.

After the Mew Aqua, I became used to sunlight. I let myself get soft, because I never though I'd have to be cold again. Little did I know that in the future I would be a little freezing hostage.

The nice part of my brain was frozen over. I was being deliberately annoying to the Mews as they watched me, this I admit. Most of them quit watching me because they couldn't stand my behavior, and I can't say I wasn't happy about that.

Pudding liked me. I can't explain why. I certainly didn't like her, because she was a human and it was very likely that she had sticky jam hands. All human children have jam hands. It's a fact of life.

But Pudding couldn't watch me on her own, and they were very concerned with the possibility that I might escape, so they couldn't have just anyone watch me. It had to be someone with powers.

Someone like the Blue Knight.

It was so weird, when he walked in the room, I had this irrational feeling of calm wash over me. I can hardly describe it, he just made me feel comfortable.

I think it might have been because he looked like one of us, and it made me feel good to see something familiar. I knew he had another form, a human form, but I'd never seen it. I wasn't that anxious to see his human form, either. I liked the one with the big ears. The one with the blue eyes.

I also knew he had a human name, but I didn't like it. _Masaya Aoyama. _No, I didn't like that at all. The Blue Knight. That sounded so much better.

And in one night, the Blue Knight and I became friends. It was sick.

I had promised myself that I would never make friends with a human. Humans were something repulsive, something to be wiped off the face of the earth.

But not this human. Oh crap, I was Kish.

At least Blue Knight was kind of only half human. He was also one of us.

But only in appearance, I argued with myself. Inside he was completely human.

I had argued with myself for about 10 seconds, when gave up. I was so bored. I wanted someone to talk to.

I wasn't mad at Blue Knight. I should have been, considering the fact that he kidnapped me. But I wasn't, partly because I respected him. He had overpowered me, acted so calm when I was repeatedly kicking him in the shins. He did what he came there to do, and I respect that kind of thing.

And I know my kicking him in the shins must have hurt, because there were dark bruises on his legs. He was tough, and didn't let the pain get in the way of his mission. Even though it completely ruined _my _plans, I still had to respect him for it. It was something Kish wouldn't do.

He was nice to me. Nicer than the Mews were to me, anyway. Also, he was a Nana Kitade fan, which scored him some serious points.

One day, he actually told me about his life. He had been adopted at a young age, and most of his entire life he had just pretended to be happy. The appearance of happiness, the good behavior, was his survival tactic. But inside of that mask, he had something in common with me:

He was sick of humans and their disregard of the environment.

So, I could tell he was different than ordinary humans. He was so much smarter. I wouldn't have befriended an ordinary human.

Intelligent half-humans I could accept.

Two weeks had past since I had been kidnapped. I had begun wondering why I was still there. I thought I would have been either rescued or killed by then. So, I asked.

"Why am I still alive?" I asked the Blue Knight on the fifteenth day.

"Because we feed you," he said.

"True, but you know what I meant. I've been a hostage for a long time."

"You've only been here for two weeks."

"Do you know how long two weeks is in alien time?" I asked.

"No, I don't."

"It's still two weeks!" I throughly enjoyed trick questions.

"Well, you're still here because you're still useful. So far your people haven't made a move against us." This was surprising to me.

"Why is that, do you think? They're not just giving up, I know they aren't. What are they waiting for?"

"You?"

"Maybe. But I think they all hate me, so it's not likely."

"Tart doesn't," he said.

"How do you know?" He shouldn't know.

"When I took you, the Mews told them our arrangement. Zakuro said that Tart got this weird look on his face," he paused, thinking for a moment. "He was very against the idea of you dying."

Suddenly, it made sense.

"He sees me as an older-sister figure." I knew that Tart wasn't in love with me, because he had that jam-handed yellow girl. It was a brotherly love, at most.

"Zakuro also said that Kish didn't seem to care if you died."

"We hate each other. I hate him because he acts like a child, and he hates me because I called him a child."

Blue Knight didn't say anything, just looked at the wall for a moment, absorbed in a memory. The corners of his lips curled down slightly, and he snapped the rubber band he kept on his wrist. I had asked him about that rubber band once, but he quickly changed the subject.

"So, what about Pai? Did he react?" I asked, interrupting his flashback.

"He made no facial expression whatsoever," he said, the slight frown gone from his face, replaced with an equally slight smile.

"Pai's good at that. I told him he should become a professional poker player, but he didn't think it was such a good idea. We don't actually have that game in our culture, so he'd have to play it with humans. And even if he won money, where would he spend it? We don't use human currency."

"I think he should have gone with that idea. If he gets over the whole taking-over-the-earth thing, poker playing could be a great fallback option."

"That's what I said!"

"Anyway, back to our previous topic. I think that Tart has an emotional attachment to you, so they're putting things on hold for as long as they can. For Tart's sake."

"They can't figure out a way to rescue me," I said. And neither could I. Well, I could, but not a plan that wouldn't end up killing me in the process, thus destroying the point.

"No, they can't. We've made sure they can't."

"Believe me, I know. I hate these freaky walls. But our planet, the one I used to live on, I mean, is dead by now. Our entire species is on earth. We just need to eliminate the humans before they figure out what's happened to the humans who decided to take a luxurious vacation on a faraway planet."

"They're dead."

"Very dead," I said, half wondering if that would make him angry, and half not believing it would make him angry.

"Well, we're not going to let you get rid of the rest of the humans. If we can counter-eliminate you guys, the Japanese can refill the earth's population in a number of years."

"That's unlikely. Power in numbers, baby. We'll kill ya."

"Aren't 80 percent of your people completely untrained in battle?"

Yes, they were. Had I told him that?

"...Shut up," I mumbled. "It's not like all of your humans are so strong."

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens, then."

"And all because Tart doesn't want me to die." Tart had apparently missed Emotional Detachment 101. Which, in case you were wondering, is a real high school elective on my planet.

"Neither do I," Blue Knight said quietly, but not quietly enough for me not to hear.

"You don't want me to die... because we're friends, right?" I was quite against dying, myself, but I didn't fully understand why Blue Knight wanted me alive. I mean, I was one of aliens trying to kill everyone.

"Right... because we're friends," he smiled. My breath caught in my chest at the sight of that smile, like an emotional hiccup. It was highly irrational. "As crazy as that is."

Friends. He said it himself; we were officially friends.

"Yes, very crazy. The Mews wouldn't approve," I said. He smiled again, and I had to hold back another obvious emotional hiccup.

"I can't think of anyone who would approve," he said.

"We are so Romeo and Juliet, you know the human play? Minus all the love and hopefully the dying," I laughed.

He stared at me for a second, and I couldn't figure out what the look on his face meant. He was looking at my face, I thought, but not exactly focused on my eyes. He was just staring at _me._

Then he stopped staring and snapped that rubber band again. Then, finally, he smiled. I wished he would stop doing that.

"Yes," he said. "Just like Romeo and Juliet."

And so Romeo and Juliet had to wait.

**Unfash: In case you were wondering why I didn't hand out the granola I promised, it's because a group of hippies stole it. I am currently baking cheesecake brownies for the next chapter to make it up to you guys.**

**Please, please, please review! Admittedly, I'm addicted to your reviews. I check this thing every day just in case I get a review. And you guys know what I do when I get reviews. I dance! To ABBA songs!**

**I have to tend to my cheesecake brownies now, so bye!**


	8. Kiss Me, Kill Me

**Unfash: Eat cheesecake brownies (they're virtual, yes, but they were made with love), and enjoy chapter 8!**

Oh, it's probably important for me to tell you that this chapter is from Masaya's point of view. The power, I'm mad with it! 

Vinegar was crazy, funny, and I was hopelessly attracted to her.

That was definitely not a good thing, because we were going to have to kill her soon. The more time that past, the more useless as a hostage she became. The aliens were planning on continuing with their plans soon, with or without Vinegar.

The whole idea behind kidnapping an alien was to buy us time. It was always our goal to get a hostage, and kill it or release it when the time came. I didn't expect to like the hostage, because I was supposed to kidnap Tart.

Tart was the smallest, and all it took was that bit of logic to make him the victim we planned to kidnap. It was never supposed to be Vinegar. We hadn't known that Vinegar existed at the time. When I saw Vinegar, though, my mind was set. She was the one I had to take.

That decision of mine didn't have any serious repercussions, as Vinegar was just as good a hostage as Tart could have been, but I know it was still stupid of me. You always have to think about your actions, especially when it comes to saving the world.

Since the time we bought with Vinegar was quickly running out, we made a new plan. Before the aliens could make a move against us, we would warn Japan. The Mews would fight as much as they could, and the civilians could defend themselves with guns, knifes, whatever they wanted.

I knew that most of the alien species couldn't defend themselves, this fact had slipped out of Vinegar one day at around five in the morning. Vinegar was so exhausted at the time that she hardly had any idea what she was saying.

So there was a chance that we could win this war, and kill all the aliens before they could kill us. It was unlikely, but giving up wasn't an option. We would fight back in every way we could.

But for a while, Vinegar and I could just hang out. I tried not to think about the impending war or the fact that she would have to die, and I also tried not to think about her lips and how it would feel to kiss them. I just tried to enjoy the time I had left with her.

But it was so incredibly hard not to think of those lips. My skin was red and swollen where I kept snapping that rubber band, but I kept thinking of those lips. And those eyes, that skin, those pointy white teeth that showed when she smiled. Since when had my thoughts been so uncontrollable? Five years ago I could have completely subdued those feelings.

I felt so different now, in so many different ways. When Deep Blue took hold of me, something inside me permanently changed, even when I had eliminated him from my body. Well, mostly. There were new aspects to my personality that were definitely the result of Deep Blue.

I didn't feel like the old Masaya Aoyama, and even being in my normal human form felt wrong. I only felt comfortable, like myself, in the form of the Blue Knight. The Blue Knight was who I permanently became. Maybe that change was for the better.

Vinegar and I had a good friendship going, and she didn't try to torture me the way she tortured the Mews. On the twentieth day of being a hostage, however, Vinegar seemed to snap.

"Okay, I can't take it anymore! Do you not realize how freezing it is in here? I'm going to freeze completely solid at this rate! And then you'll have to defrost me, and once I'm defrosted I swear I'll kill everyone to express my rage at this cold!" The words suddenly burst from her mouth, taking me by surprise.

"It's not my fault," I defended myself. "I have no control over the thermostat. It's in Shirogane's room."

"Then go in Fluffy's room and make it less cold in here," Vinegar said. Fluffy was Vinegar's nickname for Shirogane. I never asked why she called him that, but I figured it had something to do with Shirogane's hair.

"I'm kind of busy right now," I said.

"All you're doing is sitting in a chair!" she said, crossing her arms over her chest in frustration.

"I'm watching a hostage."

"Correction; you're watching a hostage freeze to death," she retorted.

"Well, Vinegar, what is it that you want me to do about it?"

"Get me a blanket. Nothing flimsy, a real blanket," she demanded.

"That would require me leaving this room, and I can't do that."

"Then I want your jacket," she said, nodding towards my jacket as if I didn't know where it was; on my body. The thing I hadn't told Vinegar at the time was that I was also freezing. Especially my legs, but I realized that she had to be even worse off than me. Her legs, as well as her stomach, were completely exposed. The least I could do was give her my jacket.

"Fine," I said, standing up and taking of my jacket. The cold seeped through my dark blue long sleeved shirt as soon as I took the jacket off, and part of me regretted agreeing to let Vinegar borrow it.

I walked over to her cage and handed the jacket to her through the cage bars. She immediately shoved it on and buttoned it up, a contented smile turning up on her lips. The jacket was far too big for her, covering up her hands and drooping onto the floor, but she seemed to like that.

I recognized how tiny she really was, practically swimming in my jacket. She looked so frail, even though I knew she was the exact opposite of frail. I knew that very well, but still some part me longed to...

_Protect _her.

Hadn't I had this feeling before? Why did I always feel the need to overprotect the girls I loved?

Loved...

No.

I thought about Ichigo. Had the prospect of kissing her felt as exciting as the prospect of kissing Vinegar? Yes, it had. I had really loved Ichigo at one point.

But this was different. Vinegar was... the enemy, and that would never change.

"Masaya?" Vinegar pronounced each syllable in my name carefully, as if testing out how it sounded from her mouth. That was the first time she had called me Masaya, and not Blue Knight. I wondered why that moment was different that before, what had made her say my real name.

"Yes?" I answered, curious as to what she was going to say.

"Thank you for the jacket," she smiled up at me, and I knew she was truly grateful.

"You're welcome, Vin," I smiled back at her, feeling all my defenses fall away as I looked at her smile. My conscious was quieted, a certain thought creeping in and overwhelming everything that told me loving her would be wrong.

_Kiss her, _every inch of me seemed to beg. It was pointless trying to fight it. Her smile looked so beautiful, I had to kiss her then and there.

I took her bony hands in mine and pulled her against the cage bars. She looked at me in surprise, but said nothing and didn't pull away. She let me wrap one of my arms around her tiny waist, and let my other hand caress her cheek and run one of my fingers over her soft lips.

And then, finally, through the just-wide-enough cage bars, I kissed her.

And she kissed me back, even wrapping her arms around my neck and deepening the kiss. Her lips felt perfect on mine, like everything I had done in my life was just to lead up to this moment.

It was strange, but I didn't feel human, a feeling that I always thought would complete me. I felt something more extraordinary than feeling human or feeling complete. There, kissing Vinegar, I felt _alive._

After what felt like forever, I softly broke the kiss. We still stood with our arms wrapped around each other, Vinegar staring into my eyes, the corners of her mouth turned up just slightly.

"Well, what now?" she asked, her voice coming out in a whisper, like she didn't want to break this trance we had on each other by talking out loud.

I answered her question by simply kissing her again.

We continued kissing for a while longer, until we were both interrupted by a high pitched shriek coming from across the room. I turned around and saw a red faced Ichigo, who I didn't realize had entered the room. Her hands were curled into fists, her cat ears and tail popping out.

"Masaya!" Ichigo screamed. "How could you! Traitor!" Tears were streaming down her face as she looked back and forth between me and Vinegar, who had an almost cocky smile on her face, clearly pleased with Ichigo's reaction.

Ichigo scowled at Vinegar, then transformed and quickly called out her Strawberry Bell, her face twisted with rage. She lunged toward the cage, weapon outstretched, and I quickly jumped in front of Ichigo, the urge to protect Vinegar still incredibly strong. I drew my swords and blocked the blow from Ichigo's weapon.

"You betrayed me, Masaya," Ichigo cried, aiming her weapon again, but this time straight at me. She wasn't trying to kill Vinegar, I realized.

She was trying to kill _me_.

**Unfash: It took me 7 chapters, but I finally got to the Romance part of this Romance/Comedy!**

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I have real gummy bears, and I would give some to you if I could. I think perhaps I should stop offering virtual treats, because it's kind of cruel, isn't it? So I'll give you virtual LOVE. Because love, unlike food, can be sent over the internets (at least, I think so).

Please review!


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